How marketers can put the “value” in value proposition

Posted on June 08, 2018

Ms Nomonde Gama, an entrepreneur, strategic thinker and challenger who is passionate about building brands, addressed the third-year Marketing Management students on 15 May 2018 on the importance of segmentation, targeting and positioning. Her presentation provided valuable food for thought that the students can use in their practical project, done in partnership with Bridgestone SA, on the Supa Quick brand.
 
A major component of the practical project for 2018 is to develop a value proposition for Supa Quick tyre fitment centres that will differentiate them from their competitors. Having a better understanding of Supa Quick’s value proposition, students are challenged to develop a marketing communication campaign that aims to increase the awareness of Supa Quick amongst identified target markets. To shed more light on this topic of value propositions, especially from an industry perspective, Ms Gama shared her knowledge and expertise with the students.   
 
The students thoroughly enjoyed Ms Gama’s presentation, as can be seen from the feedback from Jacques Vorster, a BEM 356 student:
“Right from the get go I could tell that she knew what she was talking about. She is a home-grown South African entrepreneur with an impressive background and successful career. The lecture Nomonde gave was one of the most informative and insightful lectures I have attended throughout my university career. She shifted my perspective on positioning and the understanding of it, completely. One of the main things that stood out for me was her view on reputation. She explained how a firm builds its reputation using certain products, even though those products don’t make up the company’s core business. For example, how BMW mainly uses its M series in its advertising campaigns, even though the M series only makes up a small percentage of their sales. By advertising the M series, BMW sets the reputation of the entire brand, even though it does not result in the bulk of BMW’s sales. The reputation of the M series is transferred to the lower-end BMW models, which constitute the main source of revenue.”
 
Ms Gama further capitalised on being customer-centric, saying that “one of the most important things you can do is to provide relevant products to the right people, by moving away from creating products with the intention to sell, but rather shifting the focus to creating customer-inspired products.” She was also adamant that firms should strive to be better for customers, not just better than competitors. Firms should place all their efforts into making the customer as happy as possible and by doing that, they will be better than the competitors and will be more profitable in the long run.
 
The whole of Ms Gama’s presentation tied in perfectly with the challenges of the students’ practical project and she gave many practical examples of how the students can apply various of the principles discussed. She showed, for example, how a company can truly understand the market segments they target by creating short narratives (also known as pen profiles) on the lives of the typical customers in their identified target market. This allows them to effectively see who the people in the segments are, what they look like and what their lifestyles are like. Ms Gama explained that by having a better understanding of the needs of these segments, you can reach a larger portion of the market, which can be profitably serviced by tailoring products to meet these unique needs.
 
The information conveyed through Ms Gama’s presentation gave the students clear direction in terms of how to identify and address the value proposition of Supa Quick. The students are very thankful for the guest lecturers that the Department of Marketing Management arrange to equip them in completing this practical project. The guest lecturers provide insight from an industry perspective, showing them theory in action and how to apply it to real-life situations.
 
 
Ms Nomonde Gama in action   BEM 356 student Jacques Vorster thanking Ms Gama for sharing her knowledge and expertise
 
 
- Author Department of Marketing Management

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